SAN ANGELO — The suicide rate in Tom Green County was 24 per 100,000 people in 2018, nearly double the Texas state average of 12.4.

West Texas Counseling & Guidance is working to decrease that number.

WTCG executive director Dusty McCoy said the organization has worked with local law enforcement for the last two years to track suicides in real-time and help prep services around people who lost loved ones to suicide.

McCoy said while these are steps in the right direction, WTCG wants to do more.

“We were wanting to do something about this terrible problem that we have, and so we started looking into funding and opportunities,” McCoy said.

They were able to secure grants for just over $400,000 from MHMR for the Concho Valley to implement the Zero Suicide program.

The program works by screening people during doctor’s visits or counseling appointments. Patients will be asked a few questions that help determine whether they need help.

If someone is found to be at risk of suicide, they will be given the option to speak with somebody in the Zero Suicide program, as opposed to going straight to a hospital. However, if they prefer to go to the hospital, they can.

McCoy said this national program originated at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.

“The goal was perfect depression care and (the founders) asked themselves, ‘Well, what would that look like if we had perfect depression care?’ They came to a conclusion that it meant there would be less suicides,” McCoy said. “They then thought, ‘What’s a perfect number for amount of suicides,’ and the answer they came up with was zero.”

The Zero Suicide program will involve community organizations that help people daily who are at risk of suicide.

“Most of the programs are in larger cities, so they have a bigger company to run something like this, but San Angelo is not that big of a city,” clinical director Kevin Wade said. “We had the idea to have a community-wide initiative.”

Currently, WTCG is working with San Angelo ISD, Goodfellow Air Force Base,local hospitals and doctor’s offices, Angelo State University, MHMR and the Alcohol & Drug Abuse Council for the Concho Valley. The Children’s Advocacy Center will partner with them soon.

“The school district has been a huge partner in this,” McCoy said. “What they do now is once somebody is identified as a possible crisis, they’re sent directly over here, where a few months ago, they would be picked up and put into River Crest Hospital.”

WTCG will have a rotation of trained therapists on standby from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at all three of its locations — 242 N. Magdalen Street, 199 W. Concho Ave. Suite 102, or at the Cactus Hotel, 36 E. Twohig Ave. — where they will attempt to help people with suicidal thoughts.

One reason Wade said the suicide rate might be so high is because of a “frontier mindset." To maintain independence and control, people in rural areas such as Tom Green County could be less likely to seek help with depression and suicidal thoughts. Wade said he hopes this will feel less like medical assistance.

“A lot of people who have suicidal ideation are afraid to say anything because they don’t want to be locked up,” McCoy said. “If they’re engaged in therapy with us and are working with us on a safety plan, they don’t go to the hospital. They stay with us.”

The program has been in the works since the funding had been finalized in June 2018. Zero Suicide coordinator D’Nae Johnson started the standby rotation Jan. 1, 2019.

While screening is the primary way patients are entered into the program, it’s not the only way. Wade said people can schedule an appointment by calling 325-944-4561. Appointments can also be made online at wtcg.us or on their Facebook page.